The NFL trade deadline is Nov. 3.
On Sunday, Falcons president and CEO Rich McKay addressed whether the team is prepared to trade veterans — including quarterback Matt Ryan and wide receiver Julio Jones — to start rebuilding the team.
Here’s what McKay, and owner Arthur Blank, said on whether the team would trade veterans for draft picks given the salary-cap situation:
McKay: “No. Last year we made one trade, right? It was a trade we thought was in the best interest of the player. It was definitely in our best interest, we thought, and we executed that trade. If somebody came to us with a trade for a player, it made sense to us, it was in that player’s interest, our best interest, we could do it, would we consider it? Maybe.
“That is something we would look at, but this will not be a situation where we’re going to predetermine the roster for the next head coach and general manager. We’re going to let them come in, let them evaluate this roster, let them see the moves they want to make. The salary cap is something that people talk about and they should because it is definitely a constraint. For us, we have a lot of really good football players paid at a very high level that impact our salary cap. That said, I’ve always believed that salary cap is something that you can maneuver around, you can work within, and you can operate within. I’m not intimidated by it.
“There’s no question that given our roster and given some of the players we have on it, that we will be tight to the salary cap, but we will be able to maneuver within the salary cap. Same thing we did this year when we signed Todd Gurley, and we made the moves we made. We did it even though, the salary cap, we were tight going in.”
Blank: “I would say we’ve been going at this for 20 years, I have been. We’ve always been tight to the salary cap. We’ve always spent right up to the maximum. I don’t know, Rich mentioned the other day, he thinks we have been leading the league in cash expenditures. That may be exactly so or very close to it.
“We’re always going to be in that position. We’re never going to keep resources from doing the right thing.
“The league, with the pandemic this year, is going through some new math with the salary cap going forward. I think, in my opinion, I don’t think the league is going to do anything that’s going to hurt the quality of play on the field.”
Falcons’ next four games
Lions at Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25
Falcons at Panthers at 8:20 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29
Broncos at Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8
Falcons at Saints at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22
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